Ozone Generation Reaction Rate Estimation From Needle-Plate Partial Discharges Using Experimental Data and a Finite Element Model

In this work, an ozone reaction chamber was used to provide experimental data to numerically evaluate the ozone generation reaction rate in a high-voltage dielectric-barrier needle-plate setup operating at 60 Hz. Ozone is thus produced by partial discharges. Ozone concentrations were measured under controlled environmental conditions, with experiments conducted at four voltage levels in the range from 5.0 $\text {kV}_{\text {RMS}}$ to 6.5 $\text {kV}_{\text {RMS}}$ and under four relative humidity levels in the interval from 30% to 70%. The results demonstrate that increasing relative humidity along this range causes a reduction of up to 73% in the ozone production reaction rate and a 67% decrease in ozone concentration at $6.5~\text {kV}_{\text {RMS}}$ . In addition to ozone concentration, the average energy of partial discharge pulses was also recorded for each test condition. A finite element fluid dynamics model was developed and employed, providing a framework and a formula for calculating ozone production reaction rates based on experimental results of ozone concentrations.